Are Dairy Farmers to Blame?

Agriculture impacts the environment.Humans have always had an impact on the environment. Agriculture is humankind’s most basic life-sustaining activity and has always affected the world we live in. Today we recognize as never before the high cost of many of these changes and work to reduce, eliminate or mitigate negative effects of human activity while continuing to produce the food a growing world population needs. Sustainability is the key and farmers recognize the need to make certain the land, water and resources they depend on are preserved or even enhanced for the future. As we will see in this document, farmers have committed very large sums of time and money to help ensure their future through responsible care for the environment we share.

Whatcom County residents understand that farmers not only provide much needed, high quality food, but they contribute to the quality of life we all enjoy. They understand that if farmers sell out or leave, the beautiful vistas and healthy environment we enjoy will give way to rapid suburbanization. Whatcom County, rather than having the diversity and rural beauty we now enjoy, will become one more suburb to the major urban centers on either side.

The 1998 Dairy Nutrient Management Act

Prior to 1998, farmers were left to manage how the manure from Whatcom County’s dairy cows was used. Manure is known to farmers as “nutrients” because of its importance as fertilizer needed to grow the crops to feed their cows. Manure was routinely spread on fields throughout the year. But the blessings of nature that makes Whatcom County ideal for dairy farms, also make it difficult to dispose of the large amounts of nutrients at certain times of the year. We have a high water table -- lots of water -- and, usually, lots of rain and snowmelt. This makes it difficult for farmers to use all the nutrients as fertilizer when needed. Whatcom county's farmland has been steadily rising in value in part due to development pressure, and this adds to the costs of securing sufficient land to apply the nutrients.This became an urgent problem in the mid to late 1990s with the closure of shellfish beds. The Department of Ecology pointed to dairy farms as a likely primary cause of the fecal coliform contamination. In response the industry, environmental groups, state regulators and legislators got together to create a system of managing these nutrients. The result was the passage in 1998 of the Dairy Nutrient Management Act.

The Act established a “zero discharge” standard on contaminated water from dairy farms. It requires all dairies to develop a Nutrient Management Plan enforced with mandatory inspections and it set up penalties for violations. According to Ginny Prest, the Washington State Dept. of Agriculture’s Dairy Nutrient Program Manager, “From the initial start up 17 years ago, the progress dairy farmers are making has been phenomenal - from facilities, waste storage ponds, collecting silage, conveyance or export to record keeping.”

The WSDA closely monitors farmers’ compliance and sends notices of correction which, if not corrected can result in fines. Even record keeping lapses can result in citations and penalties.

To learn more about the requirements of the Nutrient Management Act, please go to wadairyplan.org. You will likely be very surprised to see the detailed regulations that all dairy farmers are required to meet, all designed to protect our water quality.

The role of lagoons in nutrient management

It’s ironic that the media and the lawyers feeding them information focus on lagoons as a primary problem with water quality. Not only do they not leak as critics claim, but they provide an important role in nutrient management and thereby help keep our water clean. Lagoons are used to store manure so the nutrients can be applied safely. Safe application means applying at the time of year when the crops can take up the nitrogen in the manure and when runoff is minimized or eliminated. Lagoons are an important part of the solution, not the problem that some claim.

Are dairy farms CAFOs?

Critics of dairy farms like to refer to them as CAFOs, or Confined Animal Feeding Operations. This is an intentional effort to link dairy farms with the negative perception of large beef cattle feeding lots, taking advantage of the fact that few understand the technical definition. In order to be a CAFO one must first meet the standard of an AFO, or animal feeding operation. Those conditions are as follows:

Animals have been, are, or will be stabled or confined and fed or maintained for a total of 45 days or more in any 12-month period, and

Crops, vegetation, forage growth, or post-harvest residues are not sustained in the normal growing season over any portion of the lot or facility.

For those not aware of Whatcom County weather, we do have a considerable rainy season, and having animals outside during any rainy season is hard on the animals and the land. Given our weather circumstances virtually all animal feeding operations in our climate would be considered AFO’s. As to the second point, EPA is looking at operations where large amounts of animals are stored on small dirt lots where manure may not be contained. This is not the situation with Whatcom dairies, as the cows are housed in covered barns with comfortable stalls. Their manure is contained on concrete and then transported to lagoons, where it can be applied to the land when crops are actively growing. The idea that dairy farmers contain their animals’ manure and put it in storage during wet times of the year should be considered a positive and not a negative. Trying to link the term CAFO to negative connotations is a disingenuous attempt by critics to connect many of our best dairies to actions that simply do not define reality.

Farmers Work Hard to Continue to Improve Manure Management

Farmers are not stopping with the requirements of the Nutrient Management Act of 1998. For them, improving nutrient management is a continual learning process. Since the late 1990s Whatcom County dairy farmers have invested an estimated $30 million in manure management including $7 million in grants. That’s an average of over $300,000 per farm--a substantial investment indeed.

In January, 2015 more than 60 area dairy farmers attended a workshop on nutrient management conducted by Nichole Embertson, Ph.D., with the Whatcom Conservation District. The farmers learned the latest techniques and technologies aimed at helping improve on their manure management processes.

“Dairy farmers were supportive of the manure/nutrient management education. The training focused on the entire dairy farm from identifying high risk areas, and custom manure application timing schedules by field, to a nutrient budget assessment,” Dr. Embertson said. This program was supported by a grant from the Washington State Department of Agriculture.

One Example of Proactive Manure Management: Bio-gas Digesters

There are a number of examples of innovative farmers introducing new technologies aimed at efficiently reducing manure impacts. For example, the Appel Farm in Ferndale installed a sand-manure separator which removes manure from the sand used as bedding for their cows. This cleans the sand allowing for recycling while improving manure management.

In 2004, the first anaerobic digester was installed on the Vander Haak Dairy north of Lynden near the Canadian border. Since then, three other digesters have been installed in Whatcom County. There are now over 100 bio-gas digesters installed in 16 states. Digesters, costing approximately $2 million each, capture some of the gas from the dairy farm’s manure and convert it to a fuel that can power an electric power generator or, with new technology, convert the gas from manure to clean burning natural gas. Other beneficial by-products are also produced including fertilizer and clean bedding for the cows. Digesters are a win-win-win for the environment and for farmers, clearly demonstrating the commitment among leading farmers to sustainable operations and recycling. Some digesters now can also accept food waste diverting it from landfill and serving as a community resource for recycling.

Whatcom County is a leader in designing, constructing and operating these manure-powered digesters. The Vander Haak Dairy, the first local dairy to install an anaerobic digester, was recently presented with the Outstanding Achievement in Renewable Energy Award by the Innovation Center for U.S. Dairy, as part of its 3rd Annual U.S. Dairy Sustainability Awards. Washington is unique in having won four U.S. Dairy Sustainability Awards in the three-year history of the program. View the video about this important award.

Fewer Farms and Dairy Cows

Dairy farming remains a very strong part of Whatcom County life and prosperity. But, the number of dairy farms has sharply declined from over 3000 in the 1950s to about 110 today.

The number of cows has also declined since the highest number in the 1960s, but it has remained relatively steady as the farms which remain milk many more cows than farms of past generations. The greatly increased cost of farming, including growing environmental costs, means that small farms are continually squeezed with the larger farms more able to absorb the higher costs.

In the early 1950s there were about 3000 dairy farmers in Whatcom County. Today, there are around 100.

The number of cows has also decreased, from nearly 70,000 in 1962 to around 48,000 today.

Smaller family farms would be first to go

While small farms tend to be viewed with greater value by many, it is often the smaller dairy that struggles more with meeting today’s requirements for nutrient management. Economics is the simple reason. It is costly and time-consuming to meet the regulatory requirements, let alone take the above-and-beyond steps that many of Whatcom County’s leading dairies have taken. Of the $300,000 per farm invested in the last fifteen years by Whatcom County dairies, the bulk of that investment was made by the larger farmers who could more afford the huge investment without going out of business.

In Whatcom County, we greatly value our family farm legacy and it is difficult to watch multi-generation family farms sell out. From an environmental perspective, it is the larger operations which have the ability to not just meet, but exceed the regulations and contribute to improving water quality.

"Those pushing for more regulation and more investment need to be aware that the result will be felt first in the loss of the smaller family farms."

How farmers actually help improve water quality

While farmers are being accused of being the primary source of water quality problems, a very important fact is ignored. The 100,000 plus acres of farmland in Whatcom County are absolutely critical to protecting our water quality. Those acres are in fields, meadows and crops--all surfaces which collect and filter rainwater. Take those fields away and replace them with impermeable surfaces like concrete, asphalt and rooftops, and imagine what will happen. When you see that urban stormwater is one of the most likely sources of the contamination currently plaguing our community, it is easy to conclude that forcing farmers out through lawsuits or unnecessary and expensive regulation would be counter-productive to water quality--let alone to our quality of life.

The 100,000 plus acres of farmland plays a vital role in collecting and filtering Whatcom County's usually more than abundant rainfall.